Naturally the tint base showed up when I was out of town for a couple of days, but today I was able to get back to work on the little magpie linocut.
I'm at that "darn, I should have done that section differently" stage of this piece. I'm liking most things about it, but the shadow on the magpie's belly, which looked so dark 4 stages ago, barely shows up now that the dark values around it are in place. (Sigh) This is the aspect of reduction printing that can be a bit frustrating– There's no going back to "fix" it, unless I want to carve another block or do some other sort of magic. We'll see what happens in the next pass...
From here it's just some dark branches and then the dark of the bird. And resolving that shadow, maybe. But everything is very, very wet and drying slowly, so I expect it will be at least Wednesday before anything more can be done.
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A comment about comments:
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A new comment about comments, one day later:
Okay. Well. I've already had to dismiss 7 or 8 spam comments TODAY by not using the Captcha feature, so I'm afraid we're going back to it. If you're having trouble, absolutely feel free to email me. I might not always be able to answer the same day, but I will get back to you!
Hi! I sent a comment but not sure it went so I am trying again... First, love the work, many many thanks for sharing. I wanted to ask you about the amount of detail in the first drawing since it is likley to dissappear as the ink layers are added, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteMany thanks! laura
Hi Laura... My initial drawing on the block is often fairly detailed, but it definitely wears away as the block is inked and cleaned and carved and inked again. Since I often change my image as I'm working on it, I don't mind that the drawing fades from the block... since I tend to redraw as necessary. Does that make sense?
ReplyDeleteYes, you'll want a deep,deep dark for the magpie belly unless you want it to be hidden in the shadows....
ReplyDeleteGlad you're back at work.
Funny that you were held up by the lack of an invisible ink//transparent base.
(I ran around half of Florence yesterday looking for glassine paper....to interleave with my prints prior to shipping....)!
Hi Sherrie,
ReplyDeleteIf I squint, it looks like you are using the Graphic Chemical Tint Base. If so, that is the base I use, and last year I had a terrible time with drying (like weeks!) I broke down and bought some drier. The boards at Inkteraction recommended TuWay drier, and that is what I bought. I'm very careful to clean it up entirely from my work glass, and it makes things dry in a day.
Glad your tint base arrived and you are back to printing!
Elizabeth
Definetely! I was afraid of spending too much time on a drawing and seeing it disappear too quickly but it seems it is worth even if just for getting familiar with the image in general. I have been doing woodcuts now for 3 years but colour and the reduction method make me feel like I just started! Many many thanks, your blog is like a most inspiring workshop! Best, laura
ReplyDeletethis looks great :D i love the colours and glad the tint showed up
ReplyDeleteI love the way you are building up the colours and I do love magpies (even though they get a bad press)A few days before my prem grandson was born (8 weeks early0 I saw 4 in my garden!
ReplyDelete